Your Right to Know

The Columbus City Council approved a $738.5 million general-fund budget for 2012 last night and
then signed off on the curbside-recycling contract that is the biggest new program in that
budget.

The $5.7 million contract with Rumpke will pay for the company to pick up recyclables and yard
waste on alternating weeks. The company already picks up yard waste, and the recycling portion of
the contract is $2.6 million this year.

The recycling pickup will be phased in, starting in June with 57,000 homes on the West, Far West
and Northwest sides whose yard waste now is collected on Mondays. They should start receiving their
wheeled recycling carts by late April and informational literature about the program before that,
Public Service Director Mark Kelsey said.

The program will reach about 227,000 homes across the city by early 2013.

The city budget approved last night also sets aside $11 million toward expected state and
federal cuts next year, and saves an additional $6.8 million in the city’s rainy-day fund of
emergency cash.

“We’ve planned for the future,” said Councilwoman Priscilla R. Tyson, who leads the council’s
finance committee. Council members added $1 million to the fund after additional money became
available. Mayor Michael B. Coleman had proposed setting aside $10 million.

Coleman proposed a $735.5 million spending plan in November, but better-than-expected estate-tax
revenue and unspent money in other funds at the end of the year left the council with about $3
million to pay for members’ priorities out of the general fund.

Those include $500,000 for a pilot program in which the city would pay to remove graffiti from
private homes and businesses, $461,000 to open three additional swimming pools next year, and
$313,000 to restore the Community Crime Patrol funding to its 2008 level.

As in past years, about 70 percent of the budget goes to pay for police, fire and other safety
services.

Last night, the council also approved an agreement with eight suburban communities to share
fleet services. It allows participating suburbs to pay to use Columbus’ vehicle-repair facilities,
and vice-versa.

Mostly, said Kelly W. Reagan, administrator of Columbus Fleet Management Division, it will mean
that suburban communities can take advantage of Columbus’ 24-hour repair services if a firetruck or
other vehicle goes down. He said it’s too soon to estimate how much additional revenue his division
might expect.

City mechanics would be able to make time to repair suburban vehicles in emergencies by shifting
noncritical maintenance work on city vehicles, he said.

“It’s not like we’ve got people sitting around with nothing to do,” Reagan said.

Columbus and the suburbs also would cooperate to get better prices on parts. And suburban
communities that buy compressed-natural-gas vehicles would be able to pay to use Columbus’ repair
and refueling facilities without having to add their own.

Tyson said the agreement helps fulfill promises that the city would become more efficient after
voters approved an income-tax increase in 2009.